Blackberry plant named ‘Pecos’

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of blackberry plant named ‘Pecos’. The new cultivar is distinguished from other blackberry cultivars by its fruit of excellent fruit firmness and shipping quality. ‘Pecos’ is a thornless midseason cultivar. The new cultivar is distinguished from its seed parent by its earlier season, lower chill requirement, and greater vigor. The new cultivar is distinguished from its pollen parent by having firmer fruit and better fresh market shipping quality.

LATIN NAME OF THE GENUS AND SPECIES OF THE PLANT CLAIMED

Rubus hybrid.

VARIETY DENOMINATION

‘Pecos’.

1. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a new cultivar of blackberry called ‘Pecos’.The new cultivar was developed from hybridization of the patented femaleselection ‘Navaho’, U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,679, with the patented malecultivar ‘Loch Ness’, U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,782. The parents werecrossed in Spring 1991 whereafter fruit and seed were collected toproduce seedlings for field planting in Watsonville, Calif. in 1991. Thenew cultivar was selected in July 1993 for its thornless canes and firm,attractive fruit. The cultivar was asexually propagated in Watsonville,Calif., and reproduced true to type plants by in vitro shoot tipculture, root sucker division, and root cuttings.

2. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a new and distinct blackberry cultivarnamed ‘Pecos’. The variety is botanically identified as Rubus L.subgenus Rubus. The variety is a complex Rubus hybrid, which can becharacterized as an erect tetraploid with considerable R. allegheniensisbackground with other species such as R. trivialis, R. argutus and R.ulmifolious also appearing in its background. The new cultivar producesa floricane crop which begins in late June and continues until lateAugust. The new blackberry variety is distinguished from other varietiesby a number of characteristics as set forth in Table 1. In particular,the new cultivar is distinguished by its thornless canes, midsummerproduction, firm fruit and excellent shipping qualities. The fruit of‘Pecos’ is medium glossy and medium-sized compared to other cultivars.It has a solid black color with minimal postharvest drupelet colorreversion. There have been no observed plant or fruit diseases and noobserved pest resistance or susceptibility. The variety has beendeveloped for fresh market shipping use, and has performed well incoast-to-coast shipping tests and held up well after cold storage at 34degrees Fahrenheit for periods of up to ten days.

3. COMPARISON TO SIMILAR VARIETIES

The varieties that we believe to be similar to ‘Pecos’ from those knownto us are its parent varieties, ‘Loch Ness’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,782)and ‘Navaho’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,679). ‘Pecos’ is intermediatebetween its parents for many characteristics. ‘Pecos’ is particularlycharacterized by having more vigor and a lower chilling requirement than‘Navaho’, and having firmer fruit that ‘Loch Ness’. The season ofripening of ‘Pecos’ is similar to that of ‘Loch Ness’ and earlier thanthat of ‘Navaho’.

4. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying photographs show typical specimens of the fruit, leavesand shoot of the new cultivar, in color as nearly true as reasonablypossible in color illustrations of this type.

FIG. 1 is a photograph showing a primocane shoot and mature leaf of‘Pecos’.

FIG. 2 is a photograph showing a ‘Pecos’ fruiting lateral with fruit invarious stages of development.

5. DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW VARIETY

The following detailed description of the new blackberry cultivar,‘Pecos’, is based upon recorded observations of plants two to five yearsold grown using commercial growing practices in Watsonville, Calif., andis believed to apply to plants of the ‘Pecos’ cultivar grown in similarconditions of soil and climate elsewhere. Plants were planted on soilpreviously pre-plant fumigated and regularly fertilized and irrigatedwith drip irrigation. This description is in accordance with terminologyused by the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties ofPlants (UPOV). Throughout this specification, color names beginning witha small letter signify that the name of the color, as used in commonspeech, is aptly descriptive. Color data beginning with a capital letterand followed by an alphanumeric code indicate the most similar colordesignations as provided by The Royal Horticultural Society (R.H.S.)Colour Chart published by The Royal Horticultural Society of London,England. Color designations, color descriptions, and other phenotypicaldescriptions may deviate from the stated values and descriptionsdepending upon variation in environmental, seasonal, climatic andcultural conditions.

5.2 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEW VARIETY

Table 1 provides information on the plant and fruit characteristics ofthe new blackberry cultivar ‘Pecos’ compared with characteristics of theblackberry cultivars ‘Olallie’ (non-patented) and ‘Chester’(non-patented). Both ‘Olallie’ and ‘Chester’ are currently importantcultivars for fresh market shipping, and thus are comparable to theproposed use of the new invention, ‘Pecos’.

The new blackberry cultivar is particularly characterized anddistinguished from other cultivars by its fruit of excellent fruitfirmness and shipping quality. Flavor of ‘Pecos’ has been rated superiorto many other cultivars in sensory tests.

Canes of ‘Pecos’ are thornless and moderately vigorous. The average canelength for ‘Pecos’ under a normal growing season is 5.75 feet and theaverage cane length for ‘Chester’ is 9 feet. The primocane color on theexposed side of the cane is 187B and 146B on the shaded side. Floricanesare 187B on the exposed side and 146B on the shaded sided.

The fruit yield of ‘Pecos’ is medium, averaging around 11,000 lbs peracre in comparison to the fruit yield of ‘Olallie’ which averages around21,000 lbs per acre.

The leaf of ‘Pecos’ has very minor undulations between where the veinsare and is nearly flat. The leaf surface of ‘Pecos’ has a few small,soft hairs on both the upper and lower leaf surface.

The petiole color is 187B when exposed to full sun. The bud break of‘Pecos’ is in early April and usually 1-2 weeks before ‘Chester’. Thepetal color of ‘Pecos’ is N155B. The pedicel length averages 14 mm undernormal growing conditions. The sepal color is 139C.

‘Pecos’ is distinguished from its pollen parent, ‘Loch Ness’, by havingfirmer fruit with better fresh market shipping quality. ‘Pecos’ isdistinguished from its seed parent, ‘Navaho’ by its earlier season,lower chill requirement and greater vigor.

TABLE 1 PLANT CHARACTERISTICS OF ‘PECOS’ ‘Pecos’ ‘Olallie’ ‘Chester’GENERAL Vigor moderate moderate- high high Growth habit semi-uprighttrailing semi-upright Productivity medium high high Self fruitfulnessyes yes yes Number of young shoots few medium medium CANES PrimocanesAnthocyanin coloration absent present present Spines absent presentabsent color — purple — attitude of tip — horizontal — texture — heavy —presence and distribution on absent present; absent petioles irregularlydistributed density in central third of — medium — shoot Internodaldistance (cm)- 2.9 2.6 3.1 central third of mature cane Glaucosity onfull grown absent or weak weak shoot very weak Strength of full grownshoot strong medium strong Cane cross section angular to rounded toangular to grooved angular grooved LEAVES Relief between veins mediummedium medium Number of leaflets sometimes 3 usually 3 usually 5sometimes 5 Leaf color medium medium light upper side 137A, 147A 137A,137B 147A underside 146A, 147B 147B 146A Glossiness of upper surfacemedium to medium dull glossy Leaf cross section concave concave-flatconcave Terminal leaflet length (cm) 11 8.9 11.1 width (cm) 8.8 7.6 9shape cordate cordate cordate tip acuminate acuminate acuminate basecordate cordate cordate margin double double double serrate serrateserrate Lateral leaflet overlap of lateral leaflets overlappingoverlapping overlapping length (cm) 10.6 8.7 10.2 width (cm) 7.4 6.1 7.1shape ovate ovate ovate tip acuminate acuminate acute base acute acuteacute margin double double serrate serrate serrate Petiole mean length(cm) 7.9 5.3 7.9 range 3.7-12.5 3.6-8.7 3.9-10.2 pigmentation of uppersurface light reddish green- purple slightly pink pigmentation ofunderside green green- green- slightly pink pinkish Length of stalkletshort very short medium Rachis length (cm) between 3 2.8 3.1 terminaland adjacent lateral leaflets) Stipule orientation erect variable; erectclasping to erect FLOWERS Time of bud burst late early late Time ofbeginning of medium early late flowering Flower size medium- small tosmall to large medium medium Petal size length (mm) 20.3 16.5 18.3 width(mm) 14.7 11.7 10.9 Anthocyanin color of pedicel absent absent presentIntensity of pedicel coloration — — weak Length of pedicel short longshort Flower number (third node 0.95 3.6 2 from tip of lateral) FRUITHarvest season mid early mid to late Dimensions 4.5 5.2 3.2 weight(g/fruit) Size medium medium small length (cm) 2.1 3.3 1.9 width (cm)1.8 1.4 1.9 Fruiting lateral length short medium medium-long (in midcane) mean number of fruit per 7.2 6.2 22.8 lateral range 4-9 3-9 17-40Shape ovate to narrow round to elliptic; ovate; much ovate; as longerthan longer than long as broad broad broad Color black purple-blackblack to black immature 187A 178A-183B 184A maturing 187A 187A 200A-202Amature 202A 200A 202A Firmness very firm medium firm Glossiness mediummedium- medium strong Soluble solids 10.8 9.7 9.9 Titratable acidity (%as citric 10.6 13.3 9.9 acid) (ml of added 0.1 N NaOH to pH 8.1) Numberof drupelets per fruit 60 86 40

Table 2 provides information on the seed weight of the new blackberrycultivar ‘Pecos’ compared with characteristics of the blackberrycultivars ‘Zorro’ (application Ser. No. 09/772,327), ‘Olallie’(non-patented), ‘Chester’ (non-patented), ‘Sleeping Beauty’ (applicationSer. No. 09/772,329), and ‘Sonoma’.

TABLE 2 Cultivar Seed Weight ‘Zorro’ 2.3 mg ‘Olallie’ 2.1 mg ‘Chester’3.5 mg ‘Sleeping Beauty’ 4.1 mg ‘Pecos’ 3.5 mg ‘Sonoma’ 3.4 mg

5.2 NUCLEIC ACID FINGERPRINTING

Distinctive patterns of polymorphism can be detected using a variety ofnucleic acid analysis methods. In one non-limiting example, moleculargenetic maps can be produced using random amplified polymorphic DNA(RAPD) (Williams et al., 1990, “DNA polymorphisms amplified by arbitraryprimers are useful as genetic markers”, Nucleic Acids Res.18(22):6531-5). Using a variety of oligonucleotide primers, alone or incombination, RAPD analysis of ‘Pecos’, ‘Chester’, and ‘Olallie’ yieldedDNA fragment patterns that uniquely distinguish each of thesegenetically distinct genotypes.

I claim:
 1. A new and distinctive cultivar of blackberry plant,substantially as shown and described.